VERSION 4.5

Take Human Performance Measurement into the real world. More than just an eye-tracker, faceLAB's® flexible and mobile tracking solution enables analysis of completely naturalistic behavior—including head pose, eyelid movement and gaze direction in real-time, under real-world conditions.

faceLAB® produces accurate data on-time, in the toughest of tracking environments. From outdoor intelligent vehicle or aerospace studies through to screen & web usability, stimulus response and laboratory environments, faceLAB® provides high accuracy and tolerance to a wide range of operational conditions.

New in faceLAB® v4 is a leading-edge active illumination technique, increasing the fidelity and accuracy of gaze assessment. Track each eye independently, and if the subject is close enough, even track pupil size and vergence. If conditions degrade, faceLAB® continues to maintain the confidence of its classic, robust tracking system by default. Analyse and model fatigue and drowsiness in real-time with faceLAB®'s true blink analysis and PERCLOS fatigue assessment, including data on the minutia of eyelid behavior. Measurements are taken accurately on eyelid position rather than bright pupil or corneal occlusion.

Eliminate the hassle of interference, setup and correlation issues associated with traditional contact-based tracking methods—faceLAB® does not use any RF, ultrasonic or electromagnetic systems. Our unique visual tracking system provides a single stream of data. No need to stitch or align multiple tracking devices to obtain a result. No painstaking calibration of separate head tracking systems—faceLAB® itself caters to changes in pose or the movement of a subject. Specific techniques have been implemented in faceLAB® v4 to enable easier calibration of children and uncooperative subjects.

Simultaneous graphing of subject data in real-time.

faceLAB's Video display window gives a constant view of the subject's face and tracking features.

Minimise the time, cost and headache associated with experiments with faceLAB®'s unparalleled ease of use, quality of support and user-friendly interface. faceLAB®'s hallmark automatic initialisation feature has been improved, and now produces raw gaze output automatically, as well as head position and blink events over a wider field of view. Laboratory or simulator implementations are further enhanced—a wide variety of digital simulation platforms and third-party analysis tools are now natively supported. Get direct representation of subject interaction inside your simulation environment, in real-time, and synchronised correctly to the experiment. Don't restrict your eye tracking experiments to screens—faceLAB® continues to offer a fully integrated 3D world model that encompasses physical objects as well as displays.

Maintain data and tracking integrity through a range of lighting and movement conditions. faceLAB® immediately recovers if a subject leaves the field of view, and the system is robust to occlusion or sudden movement. Work with all faces and all eye types, with or without contact lenses and with most eye-glasses. Work in bright sunlight or at night time, with subjects close to the camera or several metres away. Even if you can't see the eyes—if the subject is wearing sunglasses for instance—faceLAB® still finds the head pose, eyes and mouth, and continues to produce accurate, robust and reliable data. Added flexibility is provided with the new ultra-wide field of view mode, allowing experiments with distant subjects or a variable experimental area. Reduce the amount of data stored or transmitted with variable width logging—capture only the data you need, and send it across a network where you need it.

Develop real-time applications using the faceLAB® freely available SDK, enabling other systems to localise salient facial features such as the eyes and mouth, in real-time, across standard network interfaces.

Seeing Machines has simplified the path to commercialising products based on faceLAB® technology with a licensable core now available.

Small form factor digital (FireWire) cameras now supported with faceLAB® v4.1 and above.

Advantages

• Real time eye & head tracking with comprehensive blink analysis;
• High accuracy, high speed, completely vision-based tracking engine;
• Automated & reusable calibration for fast enrollment of subjects;
• Sunlight / darkness & glasses friendly—no helmets, attachments or wires;
• Real-time automated acquisition & logging over network;
• Suitable for outdoor or indoor use;
• Comprehensive analysis tools & international support;
• Turn-key desktop or laptop system;
• Core technology available under license.

Feature overview

FEATURE	FL3 (Jun 03)	FL4 (Aug 04)	FL4.2 (Aug 05)
Automatic tracking, allowing instantaneous subject initialisation of head position, eye location and blink rate, with the click of a single button;
Configurable for almost any tracking scenario: screen studies, simulators, CAVEs, automobiles, aircraft;
Calibrate once—use over many successive sessions—no more constant recalibrations!
Calibrate a subject in your green room—then send the file to the test environment so you start the study in a clean, fashion with no fuss
Non intrusive operation (no wires, helmets or magnetic sensors);
Optional gaze calibration for improved accuracy, takes only a few seconds;
Usable with many spectacles and all contact lenses;
Able to track heads if the eyes are covered by sunglasses;
Day and night-time operation;
Usable in sunlight or variable contrast conditions;
Graceful degradation of data in extreme conditions;
Robust to partial occlusions, facial deformations, and natural movements;
High speed tracking recovery <200ms to recover from occlusion or leaving viewing area;
Computer controlled zoom (18x optical), focus and iris cameras for easy installation over a wide range of tracking scenarios;			†
60Hz data rate;
Full 3D—6 degrees of freedom (DOF) head tracking, 2 DOF gaze tracking;
New precision gaze mode (1 degree of gaze accuracy);
Pupil diameter (independent left/right eyes) measurement;
Eye vergence distance (meters) measurement.
New ultra-wide field of view mode—track head pose over a huge area, entirely optically;
Faster automatic initialisation, now produces raw gaze automatically;
Faster gaze calibration, with children oriented tracking methods with customisable on-screen calibration and specialised methods for tracking younger eyes;
Laptop version option, with completely mobile battery solution suitable for difficult power environments like aircraft and outdoor environments;
Scalable GUI windows, online help and simplified, wizard based operation;
Native support with many of the simulation industry's platforms;
GazeTracker™—the eye movement, usability and webpage analysis package—now natively supported;
Customizable logging means you store only what you want to capture;
Small form factor digital (FireWire) cameras available;
Gaze object intersections now calculated across all objects in the world model (planes & spheres—not just screens);
Customisable calibration stimuli.

†Analogue cameras only.